5 More Things You Should be Doing in Your Social Media Marketing

Maximising your social efforts

· Social Media,Digital,Marketing,Video,Content

Social media has become the go-to source for brands to grow and accelerate their business goals. From brand awareness, generating new followers, audience engagement, to increasing lead and sales conversions, social media is definitely the place to be for new and established brands in 2018.

Because social media is such a huge asset for businesses, we want to continue sharing tips and strategies to sharpen your social media marketing this year. Here are five more activities you should be leveraging to remain competitive.

1) Live Video Is a Must!

More and more social media users are opting for live video over other various forms of content. In fact, we recently published a post highlighting live video and how 80% of users prefer to watch live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% choosing live video opposed to social posts.

Live video is a powerful tool for marketers to increase brand awareness, genuinely connect with their audiences, and build the know, like and trust factor. It's so versatile that you can use it in any phase of the buyer's journey. Whether you want to educate on key topics, increase your organic reach, boost your lead conversions, or increase revenue, you can do it using live video on social media.

2) Don't Forget Short Videos too

Not doing short video is not an option (Source: Smart Insights). They simply perform incredibly well on social media, especially how-to videos. By showing viewers how to solve a problem, go through a process, or complete a task in a simpler way, you present your brand as a reliable source and expert in the industry. People will keep coming back to your pages for the next how-to, educational video.

Use the potential of boosting engagement and getting social shares to your advantage by publishing short videos. Go through your step-by-step process, showing only the most basic steps, then speed it up during editing. The key is to get it to 15-30 seconds to be effective in your social media marketing.

3) Be Social

Remember that social media entails being social. Additionally, with the constant changes in algorithms, social media networks are looking for back and forth engagement that signals genuine conversations.

Therefore, being social not only humanises your brand with your followers, it also alerts these platforms that your page content is valuable; that it's relevant and what the people want. Consequently, you'll improve your organic reach, increasing visibility of your brand.

So take a few minutes daily and be more interactive with your social audience. Respond to comments promptly using your chatbot or social media management tool. Like your followers content and share/repost if it pertains to your industry. You'll be amased at how these small nuggets of engagement go a long way in building real fans of your brand.

4) Publish Engaging Content

The quality, not quantity, of your posts is what ignites your social media marketing. Its depth, value, and relevance are key ingredients to driving engagement. In fact, inbound marketing consists of creating content that solves problems, offers value, educates, and inspires (Source: Hubspot). You want to focus on engaging your audience, not simply posting just to be posting or constantly trying to sell your product.

Instead, how can you help your followers solve an immediate problem that's common in the industry? What kind of short facts can you share that will educate your audience? How can you inspire your followers to action? Asking yourself these questions helps you come up with great content for your social media marketing.

Facebook is increasingly becoming a "pay to play" platform for businesses. The decrease in organic reach is real yet brands are having much more success by leveraging paid advertising. A huge advantage of Facebook ads is that it's highly effective, user-friendly, and inexpensive especially if you're new to the game.

Here are a few tips to optimise your Facebook ads campaigns:

Start with a campaign that focuses on engagement (i.e. generating likes, comments, and shares). The key is not to drive traffic to your website, yet. You want to boost engagement first, then for your next ads campaign, go for the traffic. Your ads will have better reach because of the engagement from your previous campaign

Use visuals that compels users to stop scrolling. Ask yourself: would this capture my attention?

It is crucial that you know and understand who your audience is so you can clearly define them when creating your campaign. Developing buyer personas is a great way to establish this foundation

Test the different Facebook ad types to see which resonates best with your audience

Tap into the power of Facebook remarketing by creating custom audiences

Conclusion

Most brands are using social media marketing to advance their business goals. These tips will help you stay relevant while engaging your audience. Use them to your advantage…and success!